On Nasa's Drawing Board: 5 Shuttle Missions Through 1988

CAPE CANAVERAL — NASA plans five shuttle missions in 1988, including two classified military missions and the launch of the $1 billion Hubble Space Telescope, space agency sources say.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has been struggling to develop a ''manifest,'' or flight schedule, for the resumption of shuttle missions after the Jan. 28 Challenger explosion.

NASA Administrator James Fletcher has said the agency hopes to launch the first mission in the first quarter of 1988, but no other details have been provided.

Sources at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, however, said an internal planning manifest circulated in mid-September listed the following shuttle flights and tentative 1988 launch dates:

-- Feb. 18: First post-accident shuttle flight, carrying a second tracking and data relay satellite identical to the one destroyed with Challenger on Jan. 28. A preliminary ''crew activity plan'' training document shows a mission duration of four days, two hours and 59 minutes. Five astronauts are expected to take part in the mission.

-- May 26: Launch of a classified military mission. Sources have said this payload may be one initially scheduled for launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. After the Challenger disaster, the Air Force had decided not to use the West Coast base for shuttle missions until around 1991.

-- July 28: Launch of a classified military mission.

-- Sept. 22: Launch of a third tracking and data relay satellite.

-- Nov. 17: Launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the world's most advanced orbital observatory. The telescope had been scheduled for launch Oct. 30 this year.

Sources said up to 10 shuttle flights were scheduled in 1989, about half of which are expected to be military missions.

The order of the 1988 flights was expected to remain the same, but the dates depend largely on work to redesign and test the shuttle's solid-fuel rocket boosters.

Some have questioned whether the work can be completed in time to support a February launch. However, Arnold Aldrich, manager of the shuttle program at the Johnson Space Center, told Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine that he was bullish on the program.

''Our target is first quarter 1988 and we are working everything as though we have got a good shot at making it,'' he said. ''I feel pretty good about it.''